Industry Buzz: Here come the 'Boxtrolls’ puppets

Published 1:55 pm, Thursday, February 5, 2015

Concept art from “Coraline” is one of the items available in the auction by Laika Studios, which also made “The Boxtrolls.”

Concept art from “Coraline” is one of the items available in the auction by Laika Studios, which also made “The Boxtrolls.”

Photo: Heritage Auctions / Heritage Auctions

Industry Buzz: Here come the 'Boxtrolls’ puppets

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

The Portland, Ore., studio behind “The Boxtrolls” isn’t wasting any time in making its puppets available to the public. On Thursday, rubber- and silicone-based characters from the Oscar-nominated stop-motion picture hit the auction block.

Presented by Heritage Auctions (http://comics.ha.com), the “ Art of Laika” event will also include pieces from “ParaNorman” and “Coraline.”

Georgina Hayns, who moved from England to join Laika Studios as creative supervisor for puppet fabrication, says, “A lot of our puppets are just stored away in boxes and sit there for years, so this auction is a great way to educate the world about what we do.”

Hayns notes that figuring out construction details can be tough, with 30 artists working six months to create the first version of 9½-inch-tall boy hero Eggs. And each “Boxtrolls” character posed unique challenges.

For the villainous Snatcher (voiced by Ben Kingsley), she explains, “As puppet builders, the first thing we focused on was Snatcher’s belly. We went straight away to the director and asked him, 'What do you want his stomach to do? Do you want it to sort of sway, or do you want it to have a bit of up and down?’”

After describing the myriad tricks of her trade, Hayns says, “I don’t think people realize what goes into the design of a puppet before we build it.

“These assets are not computer generated. They’re real objects, which is the beauty of stop motion.”

Julia Robertsplans to star in a feature remake of the documentary “Batkid Begins.”

The deal came together last month at Park City’s Slamdance Film Festival, where Dana Nachman’s film about 5-year old Make-A-Wish star Miles Scotthad its world premiere.

Roberts will produce the project with partners Lisa Gillan and Marisa Yeres Gill through their Red Om Films company.

Nachman will serve as an executive producer for the scripted version of “Batkid Begins.”

He says, “It’s thrilling to me that Ms. Roberts and her team were so moved by our film that they want to make sure the widest audience possible will know and love Miles’ story.”

Matt Zoller Seitzhas championed Wes Anderson films ever since he saw a 15-minute version of “Bottle Rocket” in 1994. The New York Magazine film critic now dives into Anderson’s latest movie as author of “The Wes Anderson Collection: The Grand Budapest Hotel” (Abrams).

“It’s probably the closest thing Wes Anderson has ever come to being all things to all people,” says Seitz, who will sign copies of his book on Tuesday, Feb. 10, at the Booksmith in San Francisco.

“'The Grand Budapest Hotel’ is like a 12-layer wedding cake with all sorts of insanely detailed decorations by a master chef who really knows what he’s doing.”

Seitz disagrees that Anderson favors form over substance. He says, “It was an uphill battle back in 2009 to get a green light on this book, and a lot of that had to do with this charge that Wes cared more about his compositions, sets, costumes and soundtracks than he did about his characters and telling a coherent story. I never thought that was true.”

Now Playing:

Seitz’s book illustrates how a variety of tones and genres came together for “Hotel.” “There’s a lot of farce, but there’s also elements of darkness and tragedy. It’s a coming-of-age story, it’s the story of a devastated older man looking back on his life, it’s the story of people trying to remake themselves. All of this, in a sense, makes 'The Grand Budapest Hotel’ every Wes Anderson movie combined.”

Latest from the SFGATE homepage:

Click below for the top news from around the Bay Area and beyond. Sign up for our newsletters to be the first to learn about breaking news and more. Go to 'Sign In' and 'Manage Profile' at the top of the page.